Alumni Council Executive Committee Meeting Minutes, June 9, 2001

Welcome—John B. Devine Jr. ’78

John Devine, chair of the Alumni Council, opened the meeting at 9:50 a.m. Since this was also the official annual meeting of the Alumni Association, the new officers needed to be officially elected. New officers Lou Richardson '67, chair, and Alex Wilson '73, vice chair, were unanimously elected. John then asked for Committee report.

Committee Reports/Updates

Academic Affairs—Becky Birrell ’92
Becky reminded the attendees that her committee would be meeting that afternoon at 3 p.m. in Lovejoy. Mike Donihue '79 (economics professor) will speak on strategic planning in the academic departments. He will be presenting instead of Ed Yeterian, dean of faculty, who was unable to attend due to a family emergency.

Financial Affairs—Karl Dornish ’54
Karl mentioned that his committee would be meeting that afternoon at 2 p.m. in Lovejoy 213. His meeting is an outgrowth of the January meeting, where they discussed the cost of a Colby education from 1980-2001 compared to the growth of the endowment during that 20-year period. This session will be presented by VP & Treasurer Doug Reinhardt, who will speak about "How the College Invests."
 
Student Affairs—Wendy Kennedy Ralph ’90
Wendy invited everyone to her 2 p.m. meeting. Dean of Students Janice Kassman co-runs this committee. The topic of alcohol is always an issue on campus. Dr. William M. Klein, associate professor and chair, Psychology Department, will speak about the Colby Alcohol Research and Education (CARE) program, "A Longitudinal Study on Attitudes about Alcohol at Colby."

Communications—Jan Magyar ’71
Karen Oh '93 presented an overview of the Colby Web site to the committee. She explained the new technology necessary to support the complicated interactions and offerings. There is more college-wide coordination—guidelines, keeping it current is always a major focus, managed from centralized source (on each department, etc.). She also shared what was new on the class Web sites—bookmarks, calendar, and on-going projects. She urged everyone to view the site if they haven't in a while to see everything that is new. www.colby.edu/alumni.

Admissions and Financial Aid—Christopher Tompkins ’89
Chris reported that they had had their largest meeting in recent history. The group met with Judy Brody, associate dean of admissions, who reported: 4,043 applications this year, 33.8 percent acceptance rate ranks us "most competitive." International increase of 15 percent and ALANA (53 new students). Class of '05 consists of 485, with 15 transfers this year, a larger acceptance rate for us than expected; that is, more students accepted our offer to them. He reminded everyone that there would be a Financial Planning for College session that afternoon. There will also be a Legacy event about College planning held this fall in the greater Boston area. The event is not just for students interested in attending Colby and will be coordinated and hosted by committee member Fran Finizio '66.

Alumni Fund—Todd Halloran ’84
Todd reported that his committee met in Boston a month ago. As of May 31, they were 9 percent ahead of their $3 million goal; all segments of giving are up, with a 24 percent increase in young alumni giving. They are slightly ahead of the 50 percent participation goal with one month to go (7,525 donors). He encouraged everyone to give and thanked donors who had already given. This year has confirmed the loyalty of alumni after the campaign. The committee is also working to improve electronic communications with Alumni Fund volunteers via the internet. He also mentioned that gift club format changes are being considered, but they want to be sure they keep attainable goals for young alumni donors. He also thanked the Development Office for their support to make this possible.

Alumni on Campus—Lee Potter ’67 reported for Chair Phil Wysor ’70, who was unable to attend
Lee's group met this morning with Kristina Judd and Karin Weston of the Development staff. Kristina led the group in a presentation on aspects of campus planning, like "sacred" space, parking, academic vs. residential areas. This process was also held on campus this spring with faculty, staff, and students and was the first time in almost 80 years the campus master-plan had been reviewed. The possibility of a new alumni house is still high on their agenda, and he wanted to reiterate that it needed, first and foremost, to be a place that would welcome alums who return to campus. He reported that Pres. Adams is behind this plan and recognizes the need.

Athletics—Alex Wilson ’73
Alex reported that his committee held a joint meeting with Colby C Club officers. They had a good turnout, and Athletic Director Dick Whitmore and Associate Director Marcella Zalot were guests. Dick brought the committee up to date on the medical condition of Matt Gaudet '95 (former Colby athlete who had a spinal cord injury this spring). He urges people to contact Dick for info to support his recovery. The committee had a report from their sub-committee on diversity. They looked at getting more women and ALANA members on the committee, and the report will serve as a blueprint for getting that done and can be shared with other committees interested in making progress in those areas. The highlights of the year and the goals for 2002 were discussed. They look to work with the Admissions Department closely to encourage qualified student athletes to consider Colby.

October 26 is the date of the Family Homecoming Weekend dinner, when they will honor the C Club Person of the Year. The honoree will be announced later, once he/she has been contacted and has accepted the honor. Last year about 200 persons attended the dinner. They also plan to honor Colby's three Olympian alumni at that dinner.

Awards—Hope Palmer Bramhall ’56
Hope indicated that there is no report at this time, but that they would have a full report in January. The confidential nature of the awards committee in reviewing candidates for awards prohibits public report at this time.

Clubs—James Bourne ’81
James reported that they had a great meeting, with an amazing number of activities going on in regional clubs across the country. He thanked the Alumni Department staff for coordinating everything. The events keep growing, one of which was helping Bro visit alumni on the road (9 out of 14 cities were done this year, the remainder this fall.) Admissions retention events were held this spring in 8 cities and were very effective in encouraging potential members of the class of 2005 to attend Colby. There were "Welcome to the City" events in 15 cities for alumni to welcome newest young alumni to each city and to build a network to offer services to current students. Some career networking events are being done in coordination with Bates and Bowdoin in Boston, DC, and NY. A new student organization has been formed, the Student Alumni Association. This group of interested students helps staff alumni events and is a great idea to develop the alumni network at young age, as well as for undergraduates to learn about alumni while they are still undergraduate.

Nominating—Eleanor “Woofie” Fleming Amidon ’75
Shawn reported that his committee heard a presentation from Associate Dean of Students Paul Johnson on campus residential life and from Health Center Physician's Assistant Alden Kent on campus alcohol issues. Alcohol continues to be an issue on college campuses across the country, but Colby has a program entitled Colby Alcohol Research and Education (CARE), which focuses on the myths about alcohol use. Its goals include educating students on the misguided perceptions about what their peers are actually doing. One goal of the residential life program is to provide alternative programming and reinforce the idea that alcohol is not the only source of social life. In 1990 only 33 people chose to live in chem-free housing on campus; now 275 students, including fully 21 percent of incoming first-year students, select chem-free housing. The research is ongoing by Alden Kent and Psychology Professor William Klein.

Planned Giving—Ernie Fortin ’51
Ernie added his support for the new Alumni House. He felt it would add to the good will toward alumni and in turn would eventually add to the financial help to the College. He reported that the Planned Giving office is doing more: the Class of '51 was the pilot group for a new way to raise income and endowment at their 50th reunion (it was a three-year plan). They had 34 volunteer classmates trained individually, and Ernie indicated that they would be presenting the results of their hard work to Bro Adams at the gift presentation ceremony later that day. He is very proud of everything they accomplished.

John Devine then continued the meeting by asking Woofie Amidon, Ernie Fortin, Jan Magyar, and Jamie Bourne to come to the podium. John thanked them for all their efforts for the Alumni Council (all retiring members of the Council) and presented gifts to them.

Report From President Adams

John then introduced President Bro Adams to give an update on the College. Bro made the observation that leadership matters. He felt the Alumni Council was very well led, and he thanked John Devine for his past service to the College.

Bro mentioned that this was a special weekend for him and Kathy—their first reunion weekend at Colby. He looks forward to getting to know alumni, one of the most rewarding aspects of his job.

Bro's general impressions over the 11 months he has been at Colby now, on all fronts, from meetings and encounters to course work, are that he has come away with a feeling of the dynamism and momentum of Colby's progress. He is impressed with how well we do it—we have a rich scope and reputation in the world—and this is the foundation for everything we will do in the future.

The faculty: An important part of the momentum is the quality of the educational experience day in and day out. He is extremely impressed with the strength of our teachers. They have a special and distinctive quality, and the faculty's involvement with students is almost surprisingly strong.

The students: The students get better every year—the average SAT scores (1330 for the Class of '05) continue to rise.

The curriculum: The richness and depth of the academic program (35 majors) is a strength.. He indicated that Colby may not grow the curriculum much more, but will continue to innovate.

Other elements of importance are:

• The extraordinary physical campus and all it encompasses.
• Our resources—the endowment has grown now to $375 million and is a most significant attribute of this institution.
• The degree and quality of alumni involvement—meeting them all across the country, the feeling and emotion here is extraordinary. The alumni affection and commitment is amazing.
• Strong leadership is another important strength, and Bro credited Bill Cotter and Larry Pugh for their past work and contributions.
• The quality of people on campus, administrative colleagues, and the entire staff.
• The steady growth in the national reputation of Colby, and the scope extends internationally now.

What's next? Regarding Colby's future, there are two possible answers:

1. Sense of satisfaction—turning inward (cultivation of our own garden), we could rest on our laurels, or:
2. Choose to be less satisfied—he regards this moment in Colby's history as one opportunity to move to a new threshold. Bro's strong personal preference is to make this choice, saying, "I didn't come to Maine to retire." He sensed a will to keep going to the next level.

For the College to be successful it will involve the collective willingness (of all Colby's constituents) to take risks, ask questions, and reconsider assumptions. We must habituate ourselves to do this while creatively affirming our core mission and values as a residential liberal arts institution. We must look at the very nature of society in this new century and our role to empower young people to engage all their environments (private, public, etc.).

We need to stress that our version of liberal learning is appropriate and distinctive from all the others:

1. We must preserve the culture of teaching to maintain a competitive edge. We need to be self-conscious of this value.
2. We need the will to ask how we grow each student. How does what we do relate to and prepare them for the world that awaits them?
3. We need to focus on developing our own unique organic strengths. We're strong in many convictions, and we need to invest in our distinctive advantages.
4. We must prepare for the physical evolution of this campus. Resolve to offer students the best facilities, including information technology. We must commit to staying contemporary.
5. We need to grow the financial resources—the key is endowment. This will be a primary focus as we go forward.
6. We need to continue to increase talented and diverse students. The increased national reputation will follow. We need to play up our competitive strengths, focus on what we're doing well.

One fundamental condition to success will depend on all Colby friends, alumni, and staff seeing the same picture of excellence. It will take the dynamic, committed spirit of all these important groups. We are currently in a planning process. Later this summer, the board will see the strategic plan with particular initiatives. Later we will make alumni and friends aware of the plan. Stay tuned.

President Adams then took questions for 10 minutes.

Q: Considering the admissions process: If people come here (choose Colby), why don't they give back in alumni participation?
A: Everything above 50 percent participation is in the most advanced group of colleges and universities. We need to begin talking to students while they're here. This can have powerful and moving results. We all depend on these acts of support. We can do a better job on this with more philosophical expectations—how people understand opportunity. The USA is the most philanthropical in the world. Bro is open to ideas to get all alumni thinking this way. VP Randy Helm spoke on this issue. 50 percent is significant; also significant is every alumnus(na) who has good intentions but forgets to give every year—those people will make a big difference in our ratios. The numbers can be misleading because it's a timing thing. We still need to get the message out about the Annual Fund—it really is once a year!

Our young alumni rates are getting higher. They are better than it used to be when some younger classes pulled down the overall average. (Progress is being made, but no one beats the Class of '51).

Q: What is the cost of tuition now?
A: Comprehensive fee next year is $34,200 for tuition, fees, and room and board. Keep in mind that 40 percent of the students receive some financial aid (to the average tune of $16K each). We still need to grow financial aid and watch expenses.

Bro thanked the audience for attending, and the meeting adjourned promptly at 11 a.m.

John reminded attendees that the Parade of Classes was beginning immediately following this meeting and urged everyone to join the festivities at the Roberts Building to the Gym.

Respectfully submitted by Julie Macksoud, Manager, Development & Alumni Relations Research.